Professor Julián Rodríguez Ferreira together with Elián Calderón Quintero and David Alejandro González, students of the Master’s Degree in Telecommunications Engineering, will represent the UIS in the eleventh Colombian Antarctic Expedition, which will take place between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.
There they will continue with the project ‘Characterization of electromagnetic emissions of radio frequency interference and tests of a radio telescope (100MHz) as inputs for the validation of the assembly site of a radio astronomical base in the Antarctic Peninsula’, which aims to detect a cosmological signal very close to the origin of the universe to understand how was the relationship of the first stars formed with the interstellar medium.
“We will continue with our radio telescope development project focused on the study of the radio ionization epoch of the universe, so this year we have focused on improving the radio receiver of our antenna, also the antenna itself to have an improved version of it. On the other hand, we will take our first meteorological and air quality station developed at the UIS by students and now we will present this experiment to study atmospheric conditions and complement the necessary studies of the radio telescope project”, said Julian Rodriguez Ferreira, who will travel to Antarctica for the third time.
Thanks to the work done in previous years, the Colombian Antarctic Program gave more quotas to the UIS, a significant fact because it is the first time that two students from the University will travel to the white continent.
“This is a dream, I never thought that someday I would go to Antarctica and to see that my master’s thesis is going to be tested there is a great pride. My thesis work is an antenna to study the radio ionization epoch. The antenna is shaped like a table with two aluminum sheets on a base and has electronics behind to put in the field and from there take measurements of the sky and then the data is analyzed with statistics and processing to hopefully obtain the cosmological signal with the instrument we are building, “said David Alejandro Gonzalez Mateus, Master’s student in Telecommunications Engineering.
The first expedition took place in 2014-2015 and its purpose was to materialize Colombia’s objectives in Antarctica and maintain a permanent presence in that territory.
“For me it is an opportunity to learn and raise the personal and work academic part, everything will be unique and an experience of great relevance for me and for the community of the UIS and Colombia,” said Elián Calderón Quintero, Master’s student in Telecommunications Engineering.
The Colombian Antarctic Program is coordinated by the Colombian Ocean Commission, an intersectoral advisory, consultation, planning and coordination body of the National Government in matters of National Ocean and Coastal Space Policy and its various related strategic, scientific, technological, economic and environmental issues related to the sustainable development of the Colombian seas and their resources.
This promotes the national interest and the effective presence of the country in Antarctica, as well as the dynamic and influential participation in the decisions taken within the framework of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), taking into account that in 1989 Colombia adhered to said Treaty.
